In the old world handbags were weighed down by cell-phones, low-resolution digital cameras and bulky music players. Now the three have become one, and so much more.
Welcome to the new world.
In the recent past news was painstakingly obtained by physically walking to the corner store, picking up the bundle of informative papers that constituted the news source of one’s choice, and conducting a monetary exchange with the gentleman behind the counter.
The rise of fast-flow digital information has rendered such manners of obtaining news obsolete. Or has it?
Despite the convenience of news stories appearing in real time on the corner of one’s screen, some college students have mixed feelings about online journalism.
As Gordon College’s school newspaper, The Tartan, goes online, some students are hesitant to accept the change.
“I want a hard copy, something to pick up on my way to class,” said Chris Mawhorter, a sophomore.
While Mawhorter prefers a physical paper to read up on the college’s sports team and “hot button issues on campus,” he tends to go online to read about international news.
Another student, Stephen Fletcher, similarly divides his news gathering between a hard copy of local news from his hometown of China, Maine, and the online editions of the Boston Globe and New York Times for breaking news.
In a world of cutting edge technology which delivers breaking news as it unravels, many students strive to remain well informed citizens through the convenience of digital media.
While students like Mawhorter see the transition to digital as good in the sense of rapid information and “going green,” some believe the loss of a hard copy of The Tartan represents the loss of the pleasure of coffee-shop reading that convenient online journalism cannot replace.
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